Marion Robert Morrison, professionally known as John Wayne and nicknamed "the Duke", was an American actor who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films which were produced during Hollywood's Golden Age, especially in Western and war movies. His career flourished from the silent era of the 1920s through the American New Wave, as he appeared in a total of 179 film and television productions. He was among the top box-office draws for three decades and appeared with many other important Hollywood stars of his era. In 1999, the American Film Institute selected Wayne as one of the greatest male stars of classic American cinema.
Wayne c. 1965
The house in Winterset, Iowa, where Wayne was born
With Marguerite Churchill in the widescreen The Big Trail (1930); John Wayne's first role as a leading man
The Big Trail (1930) lobby card
Classical Hollywood cinema
Classical Hollywood cinema is a term used in film criticism to describe both a narrative and visual style of filmmaking that first developed in the 1910s to 1920s during the later years of the silent film era. It then became characteristic of American cinema during the Golden Age of Hollywood, between roughly 1927 and 1960. It eventually became the most powerful and pervasive style of filmmaking worldwide.
Film classic Gone with the Wind (1939) starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh
Still from the silent film The Birth of a Nation (1915), starring Lillian Gish (second from right)
Theatrical release poster for Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925)